Page 5 - April 2023 Track N Times

SAFETY FOCUS

Electrical Safety By Mitch Kruse, Manager Environmental Health and Safety

According to studies completed by Electrical Safety Foundation International (ESFI), contact with or exposure to elec-
tricity continues to be one of the leading causes of workplace fatalities and injuries in the United States. By examining
injury data submitted to both the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administra-
tion (OSHA), ESFI was able to determine baseline trends over the 1,200 electrical workplace fatalities that occurred
between 2011 and 2021. The visual below, shows the categorical cause of the electrical fatalities that were reviewed.

Figure 1. The categorical
causes of electrical fatalities
between 2011 and 2021 as
1
reported by BLS and OSHA.

When examining this data, two primary causes of fatalities were observed. Contact with an overhead power source
such as power lines or catenary systems was the leading cause of fatalities followed closely by employees who were
1
working on or near energized conductors / energized parts, 45.7% and 44.9% of all electrical fatalities respectively.
The common trait between both categories is employee exposure to uncontrolled electrical energy. In these inci-
dents, electrical energy was not reduced to zero, and the result was fatal.
This is why when employees are working in electrified territory with either third rail or overhead lines, all employees
must understand what is and is not electrified and the limits of their work. If you do not know what is powered, it
must always be assumed power is applied. In these environments, electrical energy is not readily within our control
and employees must have a safe plan in place to work around or beneath these sources of energy.

Employees must understand the requirements of Section 18 Operation in Electrified Territory. Over
the course of the month of April, all supervisors should verify each of their machines understanding of Sec-
tion 18, as well as other specific machine rules when it comes to working in electrified territory.
As the study by ESFI suggest, when energy controls procedures are followed, the risk of electrical injury drops dra-
matically. 44.9% of the electrical fatalities studied occurred when employees were working on or near energized con-
ductors / parts. These fatalities could have likely been prevented if energy control procedures were followed. This is

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Page 3 APRIL 2023